Changes to rent supplement scheme criticised

More than 1,000 lone parent families will be made homeless if the Government goes ahead with changes to the rent supplement scheme, a lone parents' network told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs yesterday.

Ms Frances Byrne, manager of OPEN - One Parent Exchange and Network - said lone parents were particularly vulnerable to changes in the scheme.

Sixty thousand people receive rent supplement at a cost of €330 million a year. However, last month, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, said new applicants would have to rent accommodation for at least six months before they could receive the supplement.

In addition, all applicants would have to be assessed by their local authorities to determine they were in need of housing.

While just 11 per cent of families are headed by one parent, they make up 43 per cent of the housing list. The figure in the Dublin City Council area is even higher, at 60 per cent.

Ms Byrne said community welfare officers would not approve anyone for a supplement if they had managed to live without it for six months. With rents for one-bedroom apartments averaging €800 to €1,000, a family would need to pay up to €6,000 before they could benefit.

She said families living in B&B accommodation were in facilities which barely passed acceptable standards. Children were not developing as they should because they were living in cramped conditions and spending their days on the streets.

Mr Patrick Burke, director of Threshold, told the committee that rent supplement was the "last resort measure" and there was no alternative in place. "It is no comfort to hear the Minister promise to make exceptions for the homeless and other special circumstances," he said.

"We should never push people to the desperate state of homelessness before offering assistance."